Wisconsin Beats USC 24-7 on 58 Passing Yards
Fifty-eight passing yards. That is what Wisconsin got from its quarterback, Colton Joseph (12 of 14, one touchdown), and the Badgers still beat USC 24-7. The ground game had 143 yards, and the defense did the rest.
USC actually led for a bit. Taniela Tupou caught a 4-yard touchdown from Jayden Maiava at 9:44 of the second quarter to make it 7-3, the Trojans' only points of the day. Wisconsin answered before the half with Bryan Jackson II's 5-yard run at 1:51, and then pulled away with 14 more: Joseph found Chris Brooks Jr. from 16 yards in the third, and Ryan Schwendeman scored from a yard out at 5:02 of the fourth. That is 21 unanswered points.
The USC box score is a strange one. Maiava threw 31 of 50 for 258 yards and two interceptions, and the Trojans out-gained Wisconsin 241 yards to 201. The rushing line is where it falls apart: minus 17 yards as a team, with Maiava alone at minus 57 on five carries. Wisconsin turned the ball over zero times. USC did it twice and never got past 7 points. Joseph's 12 completions averaged under five yards each, and nobody on the Wisconsin side minded one bit. Abu Sama III carried 17 times for 71 yards, which is the kind of workmanlike line that wins a game like this.
Wisconsin goes to 5-2 and USC drops to 6-2. For fantasy owners the best night belonged to a tight end, which is not a sentence anyone expected about this game. Tupou's 16.6 was the top score on the field, and Joseph's 11.5 was second.